Half to j



(No Model.)

2 Sheets-Sheet l. E. B BENHAM.

MEANS POR HEATING RAILWAY GARS.

No. 881,754. Patented Apr. 24, 1888.

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2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(No Model'.)

E. B BBNHAA/I. MEANS FOR HEATING RAILWAY GARS. No. 381,754. Patented Apr. 24, 1888.

l of the latter with said car, the latter having Y from said fan, said gure showing portions of cle to receive air from a fan, below described,

said groove a to prevent the escape of air arms 13 of the fan A, which engage therewith,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ELIJAH B. BENHAM, OF HOLYOKE, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSGNOR OF ONE- HALF TO J. J. FRAZER, OF SAME PLAGE.

MEANS FOR HEATING RAILWAY-CARS.

SPECIPICATI'forming part ofietters Patent o. 381,754, `dated April 24. 18B8= Application tiled April 25, i887. Serial No. 235,993 (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, ELIJAH B. BENH'AM, a citizen. of the United States, residing at Holyoke, 1n the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful improvements in Means for Heating Railway- Gars, of which the following` is a specification.

This invention relates to improved means for heating` railway-cars, the object being to utilize the heat of the smoke-box or the products of combustion of the locomotive for heating the ears of a train; and the invention consists in the peculiar construction and arrangement of devices for conveying said heat to the cars and causing it to be radiated in the latter for warmihg purposes, all as hereinafter fully described, and pointed outiu the claims.

In the drawings forming part ot' this specication, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a portion of a car, the side of the latter being shown broken away, said figure showing in dotted lines the outline ofthe forward part of a locomotive and a pipe connecting the smoke-box applied thereto devices for drawing the heated air from said smoke-box through said pipe into a car constructed according to my invention. Fig. 2 is a side elevation, partly in section, of a fan for drawing the heated air from said smoke-box, and a receptacle to receive the air the pipe-connections of said fan and receptaf cle. Figs. 3, 4, 5, and 6 illustrate detail parts of said fan and air-receptacle, all of which are hereinafter fully described.

In the drawings, 2 indicates an air-receptaconsisting of a tubular ring, 2, whose form in cross-section is shown in Fig. 4, and the inner side thereof has formed therein the annular groove a. The inwardly-turned edges b of the tubular ring 2, (see Fig. 4,) on each side of said groove a, provide bearings on their inner sides for a continuous fiat ring, o, which is tted to-bear on said edges lightly and' cover.

through the latter, and is capable ot' a rotary movement within the ring 2, carried by the as below described, a portion of one of said arms and a section of said at ring being shown in Fig. 4. The said tubular ring 2 is secured against the side wall, B, of the inside of the car 3 by a series oi' braces, c, bolted to said ring and to said car-wall, whereby said ring is supported in a position somewhat removed from said wall. A discharge-pipe, 4, is secured to the periphery of the ring 2 and leads therefrom through the roof ofthe car, as shown in Fig. 1. cast or sheet metal.

A hollow hub, 5, of cylindrical form, having air-passages e through its sides, as shown in Fig. 3, of suitable metallic construction, is

Said ring is constructed of suitable 5o secured by an elbow-shaped arm, 6, to the l wall B of the car, so that its axial line is central Within the said ring 2, and a pipe,7, oommunicates with the interior of said hollow hub, and from thence is carried downward through the door of the car and extends undrical drum, 10, (see Figs. 3 and 5,) which is 8o provided with suitable internal bearings for said hollow hub 5, as shown, and on a neck, o, on the drum 1() is fixed a driving-pulley,12, whereby, by means as below described, a rotary motion is given to said drum and the arms of the fan. Said drum is provided with openings through its sides,in which are secured one end of the said hollow arms of the fan, and is of a diameter somewhat greater than that of said hub, in order to leave more or less 9o air-space within that part of theV drum surrounding the hub, as shown in Fig. 3. The said hollow arms 13 of the fan are made in the form shown in Figs. 2, 4, 5, and 6, and

their outer ends extend through the aforesaid annular groove a in the tubular ring 2, and pass through and are attached to the said tlat ring o in the ring 2, as clearly shown in Figs. 2 and 4. The said hollow arms 13 ofthe fan A have substantially the form in cross-section of the roo segment of a circle, as shown in Fig. 6, which illustrates a section of one of said hollow arms on the line .fr x, Fig. 5. The said fan'arms are so fixed on the said drum 10 that the faces of the fan-arms are diagonal to the plane of rotation, as' shown in Fig. 6, and thereby the concave sides of the arms are caused to strike the air as the fan rotates and cause it to be circulated in the car.

A pulley, 14, is hung on a suitable shaft under the floor of the car, and on an eccentric, 1o, on the shaft on which said pulley 14 is hunr, to rotate freely thereon, a lever, 16, is hung, as shown in Fig. 1, capable of a vibratory m0- tion on said eccentric, the latter being held by the shaft onufhich it is fixed, in the position shown in sa'id figure. The lower end of said lever 16,which is a starting-lever for the abovedescribed fan, is of bifurcated form, as shown each o f the arms on its lower end extending opposite the sides of the axle 17, on which is a suitable pulley, 18, which is rigidly fixed thereon. Each of said arms on the lower end of said starting-level' has hung therein a pul ley, 19 and 20, as shown, each of which is made to rotate by frictional contact with the pulley 18 on said axle. The arm of said lever, in which pulley 19 is hung, has an intermediate pulley, 21, hung on said arm, between the pulley 19 and said pulley 14, and said intermediate pulley has a frictional contact wit-h the said pulley 14 and the pulley 19, whereby when the starting-lever 16 stands in the posi tion shown in Fig. 1, the pulley 11 is given a rotary motion, which motion is communicated to the drum 10 oft-he fan,the hollow arms13 connected therewith, and the said flat ring o with which the outer ends of said arms engage by means of a belt, d, connecting said pulley 14 and the pulley 12, which is fixed on the neck o of said d runi, as above described.

Since 1t is'dcsirable that the fan should always rotate in the same direction whichever way the car may be moving, the above-described connections are provided between the axle 1 7, from which the movement ofthe fan is derived, and the pulley 14, which drives the fan. lliuswhen said starting-lever is swung to the position shown in Fig. 1, or when it ig swung inthe opposite direction to bring the pulley 20 into engagement simultaneously with the pulley 18 on the axle and the pulley 14:, the fan is rotated in the same direction because of the intermediate )illV i 19 and 14- 1 i (15,21, betu een pulleys The startingdever 16 is hun T to vibrate on saideceentric 15, in order to give the proper motion to the short arm of said lever on which the pulley 20 is hung, whereby said pulley is brought to a proper frictional bearing between pulleys 18 and 14, as aforesaid, when said lever is rswung tothe right in Fig. 1.

lhe starting-lever 16 has its two ends united by two slightly-curved flat springs, w and y; or instead of said two springs a single one may be applied in substantially the same position, whereby when the upper end of said lever is secured to the curved lockingstrap 22 by the usual handled bolt, 23, either one of the pulleys 19 or 20 is held yieldingly in contact with the pulley 1S and under such degree of spring-pressure as may be desirable to cause said fan to rotate with the car-axle. Fig. 1 shows the starting-lever in a position holding the pulley 19 against the axle-pulley 18, and consequently the spring 1/ is drawn nearly straight,whilethespringwisoutwardlycurved, proportionately to the pressure of said pulley 19 against the axle-pulley. When the direction of the movement of the car is reversed, the startinglever is swung over and secured near the opposite end of t-lie locking-strap 22, there by causing the pulley 2() to be frictionally interposed between the pulleys 18 and 14 and the fan to be rotated in the same direction as before, and under these circumstances the said effect on the leverfsprings w and yisreversed.

The operation of the abovedeseribed carheating devices is as follows: lt is well known to persons familiar with locomotive construction that the smoke-box K ofthe boiler is the receptacle directly of theintense heat from the fire which passes through the boiler-fines, and that said heat ou reaching the smoke-box has fully performed its duty in generating steam and escapes through the smokestack into the air. The products of combustion which are drawn through the flues of the boiler into the smoke-box are charged with a great degree of heat-say 500o to G00o Fahrenheit-and to utilize sa-id heat for warming the cars of a railroad train and thus turn it to some profitable use is the object of the above'described devices.

The pipe 9, which connects with the interior of the smokeboX K, may serve to supply one or several cars, for in practice it may connect with a main pipe extending under or through the several cars of a train and a branch be run therefrom to the fan in each car, such as is illustrated by the upright portion of the pipe 7 in Fig. 1.

I have found that in practice a fan,made,as above described, with hollow arms communieating with an airsupply at its hub and with an airreceptacle and a delivery pipe, as shown, is capable of drawing air and delivering it through said receptacle and ejectingpipe, and consequently a fan so constructed is adopted for carrying out the purposes of this invention. Furthermore, while the loconiotive is running, the rush of heated air through the boiler-fines into the smoke-box is so considerable that it becomes comparatively easy to divert a portion thereof and of the products of combustion through said pipe 9 for warming purposes, as aforesaid.

rJlhe train of cars being set in motion by the engine in the usual way, the fau A is started by the manipulation of the starting-lever 16, as dcscribed,and at once said products of com bustion are drawn by the fan through the pipes 7 and 9 from the snioke-box K into the hollow arms of the fan,and the latter thereby become heated and constitute rapidly-rotating heatradiators which warm the air of the car with which they come in contact, and the shape of IOO IOS

said arms, as above described, causes the air within the car to be rapidly blown away from and drawn between said arms, and within a short space of time the whole air of the car becomes heated nearly to the temperature of said products of combustion, which are rapidly drawn into and passed through the fan, and which being conducted through the ends of the hollow arms into the hollow ring 2, which also serves as a heat-radiator, and from said 'ring are conducted by the pipe 4 through the roof of the car.

It will be seen that the great heat contained in the matter drawn from the smoke-box, as described, is utilized in heating the fan and its described connected parts for radiating purposes without permitting any of the said products of the combustion of the fuel of the locomotive from escaping into the car.

For the purpose of producing the most advantageous heat-radiating eHects in a car-,and in order that it may be rotated with as little 'resistance as may-be practicable, the arms of the fan A and the hollow ring 2 or airrecep tacle are made, preferably, of sheet metal, iron being the most desirable.

It is obvious that the radiating-fan may be given a rot-ary motion by connection with the axle of the car by other than precisely the mechanism herein shown-as for instance, by a vertical shaft and gear-connections between the axle and said shaft and between the latter and the hub of the fan.

What I claim as my invention is= 1. Means for warm-ing the cars of a train by the products of combustion taken from the smoke-box of the locomotive, consisting of a heat-radiating fan, substantially as described, having hollow arms supported in a position to rotate within a car, a belt, d, connecting-pulleys actuated by the axle of the car with the fan, whereby said fan is rotated, a pipe con veying the products of combustion from said smoke-box to the fan, a receptacle for said products or" combustion,with which the hollow arms of the fan communicate, and an ejectingpipe connected to said receptacle, combined and operating substantially as set forth.

2. Means for warming cars by the products of combustion taken from the locomotive,consisting of a heat-radiating fan having a series of hollow metallic arms, a drum to which said arms are xed by one end, a circular tubular receptacle having an annular groove in its inner side, a dat ring within said receptacle and covering said groove through which said arms pass, a hollow hub on which said drum rotates, having communication therewith by passages through its sides, a pipe conveying said products of combustion from the smoke- 6o box of said fan, and a discharge-pipe leading from said receptacle to the outside of the car, substantially as set forth.

.3. Means in a car for receiving the products of combustion from the smoke-box of a locomotive and imparting the heat thereof to the air in said' car, consisting of a heat-radiating fan constructed with a series of hollow metallic arms havingl in crosssection substantially the form of a segment of a circle, a drum to which said arms are ixed by one end, a tubular receptacle encircling the outer ends of said arms, having an annular groove in its inner side, a dat ring within said receptacle covering said groove through which said arms pass, a hollow hub on which said drum rotates having communication therewith by passages through its sides,and a pipe conveying the products of combustion from the smoke-box of a locomotive to said hollow hub and a pipe for Vdischarging the products of combustion from said receptacle, substantially as set forth.

ELIJAH B. BENHAM. Witnesses:

G. M. GHAMBERLAIN, H. A. CHAPIN. 

